Resident Evil Village's Castle Used To Be Filled With "Dozens Of Sisters," Says Art Director

The castle in Resident Evil Village used to be a lot more crowded than it is now. The initial design for the environment was filled with dozens of vampire daughters, not just Alcina Dimitrescu and her three daughters.

"There was also a point in time where it wasn't a trio of sisters, but dozens upon dozens of sisters inhabiting the castle, all ready to feast on Ethan's blood," art director Tomonori Takano said, according to PlayStation Blog. "However, after trial and error and testing the game's tempo, the Dimitrescu family was ultimately decided to be Alcina Dimitrescu and her three daughters."

He continued: "We had experimented with a lot of different variations during the initial development stage. At one point they had giant scissors. Another design had them with leech-like long tongues. Yet another time, they wielded whips."

Takano also clarified that the Dimitrescu family solely feeds on the blood of human males, explaining why players will find only men crucified just outside Castle Dimitrescu. Those men are previous meals. When designing the family, Capcom wanted to create individuals that players would find genuinely creepy, but also oddly beautiful.

"We had a central theme or focus when designing each location of the village," director Morimasa Sato added. "For the castle section, the central theme was creating 'beautiful horror.' That gave birth to the idea of having multiple daughters appear, all wearing expressions of complete madness."

In GameSpot's Resident Evil Village review, Phil Hornshaw wrote, "Village is an intelligent reintroduction of the best action elements of Resident Evil. Though it captures some of the same things that made RE7 such a breath of fresh air (or maybe rancid, stale, mold-filled air, but in a good way), Village evolves to become its own unique creature. It makes you wonder what beautifully twisted fiend Resident Evil might mutate into in the future."

If you're playing Resident Evil Village, be sure to check out our guides roundup, which includes our spoiler-free walkthrough, essential beginner's tips, treasure guide, and more. Otherwise, read up on why you should start the game on hardcore difficulty.